Mutual passivation of group IV donors and nitrogen in diluted GaNxAs1−x alloys

We demonstrate the mutual passivation phenomenon of Ge donors and isovalent N in highly mismatched alloy GaNxAs1−x doped with Ge. Layers of this alloy were formed by the sequential implantation of Ge and N ions followed by pulsed laser melting and rapid thermal annealing. The mutual passivation effect results in the electrical deactivation of GeGa donors (Ge on Ga sites) and suppression of the NAs (N on As sites) induced band gap narrowing through the formation of GeGa–NAs nearest neighbor pairs. These results in combination with the analogous effect observed in Si-doped GaNxAs1−x provide clear evidence of the general nature of the mutual passivation phenomenon in highly mismatched semiconductor alloys.